The Clone Rebellion
by DeKarbon
Summary: A regular clone squad and their commando counterparts try to stay together throughout the wars. What they find in their battles leads them to make decisions that will alter what had been set in motion for themselves.
1. Prologue

Star Wars

Prologue

Geonosis landing site 406

Battle of Geonosis Day 1

_Three...Two…One._ A hatch slid open and three clones were pushed closer to the edge by a gust of wind. In their Phase I armor, they looked like ghosts staring out onto the red, dusty surface of Geonosis.

CT-5037/9892, Kendal, gripped his DC-15A rifle tighter and waited for Verna, the squad leader, with the green markings on his armor, to motion them out of the troopbay of the LAAT/i gunship. Before the first one got out, a Geonosian flew in front of them and fired a sonic wave into the gunship. The shot went far off to the left and left a very large dent in one of the bulkheads near the entrance to the cockpit.

The Geonosian's body burned as at least seventeen bolts hit it. Kendal released the bolt cartridge in his rifle and slid it back into one of his belt pouches, pulling out a new one at the same time. He slapped it into the receiver and jumped out the hatch.

His boots sent up a large amount of the red dust that collected on and in every surface of his armor. The repulsor-lift drives from the gunship didn't help at all either. His visibility was reduced to about seven meters out and he had to switch to progressive scanning with his helmet sensors.

Ken loved the panoramic view offered by the helmet. He spotted three Geonosians coming up from his right and he immediately twisted to face them. He pulled the trigger on his rifle as soon as he had sighted the first one. Three bolts hit it, one in the head.

A screech rang out as it fell from the sky. The other two were hit by at least six bolts each. Ken noticed a column of droids coming up on their location about thirty meters in front of the squad.

He pulled out a thermal detonator and tossed it at the droids. It bounced off one and hit another before it exploded and sent shrapnel into all of the surrounding droids. The entire column fell without firing a shot.

Ken finally noticed his squad advancing toward the RV point and sprinted after them. They stopped at a chasm and he caught up to them. He stepped closer to the edge and looked down into it. Unfortunately for him, the area where he was standing just happened to be an outcropping, but he couldn't tell that it was.

A Geonosian surprised him by flying out from under the outcropping and his t-shaped visor was cracked over his right eye by the Geonosian's knee. He was thrown backward as his squad burned the Geonosian. He grabbed Lodi's hand and pulled himself up. He looked around for his rifle and saw it off to his right.

Lodi picked it up and handed it to Ken. He grabbed it and checked to make sure it wasn't damaged.

"You alright?" Lodi asked. Ken nodded and stepped up to the expanse again.

"You may wanna get that fixed after we're finished here," Lodi said from behind him. Ken looked over his shoulder and asked, "What?"

Lodi pointed at Ken's visor and said, "That." Ken looked at the crack running halfway across his field of vision. The heads-up display had been screwed up, so now he could see only the crack and beyond the visor now.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I will," he replied.

"No time for small talk, Clones! We have a job to do," Verna said. Ken looked down the chasm and actually had time to notice that it wasn't all that deep. He saw several droids firing at something that he couldn't see and dropped a thermal detonator near them.

Only one was left after the explosion, but it was quickly cut down by some other clones. He attached a rappelling line to the edge of the outcropping and jumped down, letting the motor on his belt slowly carry him down. When his boots reached the ground, he detached the line and stepped backwards so he wasn't in the way for the next clone coming down.

"You gonna' get that fixed?" A clone asked when he turned around.

"Yeah, I just hope I won't need any of my other helmet systems for this battle," Ken nodded as he replied. "What squad are you in?" the clone asked him.

"Twentieth Squad of the forty-fifth Infantry, Sixth Battalion." The clone nodded. "We're Fifth Squad, hundred-and-tenth armor division."

"Any casualties?" Verna asked as he walked up to them. "Three wounded, one dead. He was pushed off the edge of a cliff by a Geonosian before we could get through to him," the clone replied.

"Fierfek. What are your objectives?" Verna asked. "We have to take out an ack-ack gun. It's been causing the flyboys all kinds of trouble, sir."

"Roger. Any others?" "Take as many organics as prisoner as possible." Ken couldn't tell whether the clone was smiling, but he knew that there was some sort of glee in his voice. Verna nodded and said, "Which gun are you talking about?"

"Three kilometers north of this position," the glee had left his voice.

Lodi whistled. "Major misdrop, wouldn't you say?"

"We got shot down by a gun that was taken down by Delta Squad," the clone said. "Our A-tee barely landed on solid ground. We were the only ones that managed to get out before it tipped into a canyon."

Verna nodded and asked, "Are you the commanding officer from your platoon?"

"He was the one that got pushed off the cliff." There was a definite sign of sadness in his voice. Verna nodded and said, "We'll get you transport to your objective."

The clone nodded once and said, "Yes, sir."

"Droids!" The shout came from far behind the second clone squad. Kendal sprinted toward the voice and almost ran over another clone. Lodi followed Ken and when he went around the face of a cliff, he slammed into Ken.

Three super battle droids were standing there aiming directly at Ken. A fourth was kneeling down, and the two clones barely had time to get out of the way before it fired a wrist rocket. It hit the cliff face and red rocks flew everywhere and almost covered Ken and Lodi.

Three clones had come up behind Ken after the rocket hit the face and had gone into kneeling positions, firing away at the droids. Lodi had already gotten into a half kneeling position and was aiming at the droids. Ken pushed himself off the ground with his hands and was almost immediately hit by a blaster bolt.

Clutching his side, he rolled onto his back and grabbed at his blaster pistol. He managed to pull it out with one hand and fired at the droids. More clones came and fired at the battle droids, and finally one of them fell to the ground.

Then another. Then a third fell and the last one knelt down again. It didn't get the missile off before it was destroyed. Ken reholstered his blaster pistol and waited for someone to help him with his wound.

Two clones grabbed him and began carrying him away from the rest of the battle, or what was left of the engagement. They laid him down next to another clone, and Ken could tell that the other one was unconscious or dead because he didn't react at all when one of the clones tapped his visor twice.

Lodi came up to him and started to clean his wound. The bolt had gone through his armor plates and the black under suit to burn the skin deeply.

"You're gonna be alright," Lodi said. He kept repeating that as though Ken would die if he didn't. Ken knew he would die from the wound if it weren't treated properly, and he was glad that every clone in the Grand Army had to take emergency battlefield medical classes. Ken pulled his hand away from the wound and put it on Lodi's shoulder.

"I know. I know," he said. Lodi never looked up from what he was doing. He pulled off his abdomen plate and peeled the under suit away from the affected area. He pulled out a bottle of some sort of cleaning solution from a pouch on his belt and poured some over the wound. It burned like hell and Ken thought that it might do more harm than good, but it actually swept away some of the charred, dead bits of skin still clinging to his side.

Lodi quickly smoothed a battle dressing over the wound and said, "I'm going to get you out of here, no matter what it takes. You got that?" Ken managed a nod and Lodi patted his shoulder, "Good. I'll come back in a bit." With that he ran off to join the rest of the squad.

He checked the charge on his pistol and laid back. He switched off his helmet comlink so he couldn't hear anything except for what was going on around himself. Several groans of pain came from the other clones, but Ken held his silence.

There wasn't much use to whining about your injuries, since the only others around to hear them at that moment were other injured clones.

Ken turned his head to the clone trooper on his right and checked for a pulse through the under suit. There was a weak one, but it was there. Ken felt a moment of relief wash over him. A brother he had never even met before might survive and that made him feel good.

He didn't know why, but it was as if he and that clone had been bred from the same transparisteel container. He knew that it couldn't be possible, but he also knew that that was how he felt. Ken ignored the pain in his side and sat up to look at the other clones and noticed that the two clones that had carried him out and away from the droids were working on stabilizing a clone that was obviously going into shock.

"My name is Merdan," the clone right beside him said without looking at him. "What's yours?" Ken looked at him and said, "Kendal. I thought you were unconscious."

"No. I'm just trying to get a little bit of sleep." Merdan finally turned his head to Ken. Ken popped off his helmet and set it down on the ground next to him.

"Hope you know that your helmet seals won't work right anymore."

Ken laughed and said, "They never worked for me." Merdan chuckled slightly. It was amazing how little the Kaminoans knew of Human physiology even though they cloned them and raised them to be the perfect fighting machines. Except that they weren't machines. They were Human.

Ken never knew which system on the armor would fail next, so he had actually made some sort of game out of it with Lodi in which they'd bet credits on whichever system failed next. Or whatever they could find of value to use as there bets. Credits hardly ever reached a clone's hands, so they were one of the most valuable things within the Grand Army.

"Maybe you should stop taking your helmet off and putting it on the ground like that, then." It sounded like Merdan was out of breath. "Can I try to get to sleep now?"

Ken chuckled and nodded his head. Merdan shifted his head back to how it was before and stayed quiet after that. Ken leaned forward more and clipped his helmet to his belt. He tried to stand, using a rock as support and started to walk slowly away from Merd and stumbled a few times.

He reached the two clones who were trying to stabilize their comrade. "Need any help?"

Neither of them looked up from the wounded clone and one said, "Yes. Could you call in for a gunship? We need to get these clones into a medbay." Ken nodded and realized that they weren't looking at him so he said, "Roger."

Ken flipped through the frequencies on his comlink and picked up his squads frequency. "Verna, this is Kendal. What's the ETA on that gunship? We have one going into shock."

"And one that's paralyzed," the two clones had turned to Ken. "This one's dead." Ken looked past them at the still form of a clone that had been, a few minutes ago, in his death throes.

"Which one's paralyzed?" One of the clones indicated Merdan. That was why it sounded like he was out of breath. He could barely breathe at all.

"ETA on the gunship is unknown, nine-two. They need these AA's silenced." Verna's voice crackled over the comm. Ken let out a breath in frustration. "Damn it, we need transport _now_ Verna."

"I realize that, nine-two, but remember your place. You were cloned for a reason, and that was to do your job. If you are fit to fight, get your _shebs_ back up here. We need your help." Ken sighed again and muttered, "Yes, sir. I'm on my way."

***

Lodi pulled the trigger a few more times and three tinnies fell. Then he realized that two of them hadn't been his kills.

Kendal jumped down into the little trench beside him. "Any news on that damn gunship?"

Ken turned his head to him and shook it slightly. So they had all been on the same frequency. Lodi popped his head up again and fired five bolts, neutralizing two tinnies. Ken threw a thermal det over the embankment and waited to hear screeches of metal.

A droid barely managed to poke its beady little head over the clones before it blew up. Oil splattered Lodi and Ken and Ken noticed that the fracture in his visor had gotten thicker and was now covering the entire faceplate as the oil seeped through.

"In my ten year life span, never once have I tasted overheated and over used oil," Ken said as some dripped onto his lip. Lodi turned to him and Ken sensed quite a bit of confusion emanating off of him.

"It's coming in through the crack in my visor." Ken pointed at his face. Lodi nodded and stood up to take a few more shots. Ken's lip burned but he managed to endure the pain, reminding himself that he was on a battlefield. He popped his head up and a droid damn near ran him over.

Ken's rifle fired on its own and pretty much welded itself onto the droid because of how close they were. The rifle kept on firing and managed to finally blow a hole through the droid, and now Ken had some cover other than the little trench.

Which was all but destroyed in a matter of seconds. Ken kicked the melted body off of his rifle muzzle and ducked down into the trench. Lodi tossed a concussion grenade into where he thought were droids and got a satisfying crunch of metal as it was slammed into the walls of the cliffs.

A clone over to the far left of Ken yelled, "Clear!" Ken and Lodi popped up cautiously, taking small steps out into what was now pretty much a junk yard or scrap heap. Ken steered clear of any of the jagged pieces of durasteel and walked along in a high crouch.

Ken reached the next canyon first and slid a pair of macrobinoculars out of a pouch on his belt. The area around the AA gun was surrounded by droid dispensers. Verna came up behind him and whispered, "How many?"

Ken pivoted to the left, "I count at least thirty droids individually, three supers and a couple dispensers. There could be a few more dispensers and supers behind that rock, though." Verna nodded and motioned for two clones from the new squad to come to him.

"See if you can get a better view of the area. We need to know exactly what we're going up against." The clones nodded and ran off in the direction that they came from.

A few minutes later, Ken's comlink popped and a clone said, "They have three more dispensers and one of the heavy armored walkers. About twenty supers are coming out of the building no—" Blaster fire echoed through the canyon as through the comlink.

"Sorry, sir. Had some tinnies trying to sneak up on us."

"Ver," Ken said. "Ver."

Verna turned to him. "What?"

"The droids are moving. I think it's the two other clones."

"Be advised, the droids have your location. Get yourselves out of there!" Three of the battle droids opened up on some rocks and there was some return fire, but it couldn't have come from two clones. Ken counted at least thirteen bolts simultaneously.

"That can't be them, sir. I can see three clones from here."

"This is Commander Makan. Any clones in the vicinity, please respond. We are pinned down behind a boulder."

Ken started talking before Verna did. "This is Trooper Kendal. We have your location and will give you some covering fire. Make yourselves vanish."

All of the troopers behind Ken started firing away at the rear of the droids, taking down at least thirteen of them.

"Thanks, Kendal. Regroup at rally point beta."

"Fall back!" Verna yelled. Kendal fired off the last two bolts in his power pack and reloaded as he was making his way backwards. One bolt took the head off a droid and the other knocked an arm off a super.

Ken looked off to his right, but focused on an area of his visor that wasn't cracked. Lodi noticed and chuckled slightly, "Guess you really need that fixed. Next clone you see on the ground, take his helmet."

Ken nodded, but felt guilty at taking equipment from a dead brother. Even if he had never met the one he was taking the helmet from. A blaster bolt slammed into the ground near Lodi's feet and the clones immediately scattered.

Ken made his way toward an area where he thought was an RV point, but turned out to be infested with droids. A spider walker made its way toward his position, but was immediately taken out by cannon fire from an AT-TE. One leg crushed three supers and another came straight for Ken.

He rolled out of the way and came up with an EMP grenade in his hand. It sailed through the air and landed near a couple battle droids. Ken's side flared in pain and he dropped to a knee. A super stepped up in front of him and aimed its wrist blaster at him.

Ken raised his blaster and fired as much as he possibly could and managed to blow the droid's head off. The rifle fell from his grip and he used one hand to support himself.

Lodi came up behind him and put his arm around him. Ken wrapped his left arm around Lodi's neck and stood up so he could hobble off the battlefield. He looked up and watched a gunship get taken out by some AA fire.

"Fierfek, they really do need that gun silenced. I guess an A-Tee would be out of the question?" Lodi looked at him and said, "You always were the one that thought of things no one else could." He switched to the command frequency. "Command, requesting an A-Tee fire on these coordinates. An AA gun is causing the flyboys a lot of trouble, and we have wounded." Lodi sent the coordinates to the commander on the other side.

"Negative. Commando Team on route to that site. Advise you give the boys some breathing room and covering fire," the com popped as Lodi switched back to the platoon frequency. "Ver, we've got to get back to the AA gun. A commando team needs some cover, and we've been ordered to help them out."

"Roger that, Lodi. Take a team back towards the gun and wait for them. If it gets too hot, radio command and ask for some covering fire from the sky."

"Can you walk, Ken?" Lodi turned back to Ken. "Yeah, but barely. I need a rifle, too." Lodi picked up an E-5 rifle from the charred corpse of a battle droid and handed it to Ken. Ken checked to make sure it wasn't damaged and checked the power pack.

It was fully loaded. Ken smiled at the fact that droids were far less competent than clones and gingerly pulled the battle dressing off his wound. Lodi put a clean one on and slapped Ken's back once, making sure that he could move around.

Ken stepped over the fallen droid and looked over his shoulder at Lodi, "Am I part of your team, or what?" He set off toward the gun emplacement and Lodi yelled at two clones a little behind Ken and to his left. "You two, go with him. Find another one, Ken, and I'll join you shortly."

Ken kept walking and pointed at a clone as he passed by. He gestured for the clone to join him and they moved towards where continuous laser fire was coming up from the ground. Maybe they'd get lucky and run into the commandos as they were moving toward the emplacement.

***

Jagger fired a grenade from the anti-armor attachment on his DC-17 and quickly pulled it off so he could fire normally. A super was taken down by the grenade and it shredded a nearby battle droid. Five more droids fell from headshots when he saw a flash of white tinted red because of the dust off to his far left.

Five regular troopers had shown up and were now giving the commandos covering fire. Jagger also noticed that one of them was using an E-5 blaster, the standard issue weapon of the Trade Federation droids. Either he liked enemy weapons more than Republic issue ones or he had lost his own rifle.

"Jagger! We have friendlies moving toward our position," Talda yelled over the comm. "I know. I saw them coming in."

Gihan, the sniper on Alpha Squad, chimed in, "They were probably sent by command to help us in the friendly manner that command always has."

"Cut the chatter, Alpha. They definitely know we're here, too," Jagger said. One of the clones looked over in Alpha's direction, but turned back to the droids. "I think one of them has been hit."

"What makes you say that?"

"He's got a dressing on his side." Talda chuckled. A clone tossed and EMP grenade into the droid's midst and they all watched as the clone that was wounded climbed over a rock and jumped down on top of a super. The clone pulled a knife out of a pouch on his calf and began to stab away at the droid's photoreceptors.

"Fierfek, Gihan. You could definitely learn a thing or two from him," Haldo said. The droid fell over and the clone fired point blank into the back of it. A battle droid next to him had the misfortune of having its back turned, and the clone sliced into its neck and shoulder.

He then grabbed the fallen E-5 rifle and dual-wielded them, destroying countless droids. Gihan jumped over a rock and charged a super. The commando slammed into the droid and knocked it flat on the ground. He shot the thing's head to pieces and moved on to the smaller battle droids.

Soon, the clone and Gihan were back-to-back, firing away at the droids.

"So, what batch were you from?" Ken asked the commando as he dropped one of the rifles to reload the other.

"I think the seventeenth. I can't really remember." Gihan used the knife housed in his forearm plate to gut a battle droid.

"I thought you would have been more of a tenth. I hear that they all went brain-dead five years after they came out of the tanks." A piece of Ken's visor fell away and onto the ground. "Fierfek!" The commando immediately turned around to see what had happened.

"Now I really need a new helmet."

"You bet you do. Don't want you to get dust in your eye, now do we?" Lodi's voice crackled as Ken melted a droid.

"You can read me like a book."

"A terrible one, at that." Gihan chuckled and returned to decimating droids.

"Alright, I'm the only one who makes the jokes around here," Haldo chimed in on their conversation.

"Never mind trying to outwit each other. Maybe you can outthink him, Hal, if you can even manage that."

"Dream on, lizard-lover. I thought you knew that's not possible."

"I resent that." Haldo yelled over the comm at Lodi.

"Don't you mean represent?" Ken asked.

"I have already established my authority as the joker, here."

"Cut it out, you guys. Try to make yourselves useful and blow the place into tiny fragments. I don't want to see any trace of this place by tomorrow, and neither does Command." Jagger said.

Gihan sighed and used his anti-armor attachment to destroy the armored walker that had been nearly gutting him and the other clone. "We're going to need something bigger."

"Like what?" Ken stepped up next to him.

"Three or four kilotons worth of explosive to make Jag's dream come true."

"Ah." Ken said. "Maybe if we wait for them to surrender, they'll help us find where their armory is and we could blow that."

Haldo laughed, but realized no one else was laughing with him, so he quieted down.

"Don't make it any harder than it already is, please."

"Not trying to." Ken said innocently. "I think you guys can quit hiding now."

Alpha Squad and the other four clones either jumped over rocks or went around the side of them. Jagger walked up behind Ken and Gihan and asked, "Do we have enough explosives, Hal?"

"Yup. If I could get to them." Haldo was standing behind Lodi and waited for him to move aside. When he finally realized the commando was talking about him, he said, "What kind of a clone would I be if I didn't get in your highnesses' way?"

"Har har, very funny." The commando reached down and picked up three of the explosive devices. "If I had some help, too, I could blow this place to where ever your religion's holy place is. Or the 'evil' place. Whichever you prefer."

Gihan went back to him and grabbed the other two devices and the detonators for them all. When he got back to where he had been standing, he handed the detonators off to Jagger.

"Do you need any help clearing the place out?" Ken asked Jag.

"We can handle ourselves in there. But keep your comlink open if we do need any help." Jagger put his hand on Ken's shoulder. "Make sure no droids get in or out of here."

"Yes, sir." Ken reloaded his weapon as Jagger and Talda followed after Haldo and Gihan. The three clones that had come with Lodi and Kendal sat down on some short rocks or crouched down near the entrance to the emplacement.

Lodi opened a comm channel to Command and said, "Command, Commando team has entered the gun emplacement with their explosives. Unknown what kind of forces are inside."

"Roger that, Trooper. Contact us if you need aerial or artillery bombardment." Lodi's comm popped and he stared off into the black space where the doors were. Several minutes passed before they heard anything but the battle raging off somewhere else on the planet's surface.

Ken felt the ground shake, and he stood up immediately. Three seconds passed before they heard another explosion. Then two more came. Then Alpha Squad emerged and the last explosion came. The ground on top of the small plateau rose up and fell down into what was left of the emplacement.

Ken noticed that Gihan was limping and rushed over to him. He helped the commando over to one of the short rocks that had just been vacated and sat him down.

"What happened to you?" Ken asked him.

"Fell. I think I twisted it." Gihan answered him.

"How far?"

"Maybe three or four meters."

"Hah! More like ten or twelve, you nimrod." Haldo said.

"It felt just like three or four, though." Gihan replied.

"Hal's right. It was ten or twelve." Jagger said.

Ken sighed, "Alright. We have to get out of here," he said. "Lodi, see if you can get a gunship in here." Lodi nodded and his com popped again, "Command, we have wounded here. Can we get a gunship in?"

"Yes we can, Trooper. Nice job with the explosives, the flyboys really appreciated the show." Jagger chuckled. "ETA for the gunship, two minutes. We'll pick up the Commando Team, too."

"Roger that, Command." Lodi's com popped.

"So then. What was your fall like, G?" Haldo would probably never stop provoking the man.

Gihan grunted. He probably never took the bait with games like that. "I'd say it was beautiful. Unlike yourself." Or Ken could be wrong.

"Yeah, yeah," Haldo said, then to himself, "Big show-off."

Ken smiled and thought of what could have caused Hal to shut up like that. Obviously, it had been very humiliating for Haldo. The gunship arrived in less than thirty seconds after Hal stopped talking, and it was a very uneasy silence. Gihan stood up and limped his way to the larty with the help from Jag.

"Need a ride?" the Sergeant in the gunship yelled to them.

"Why not? Let's just hope we don't get taken down by another AA gun," Ken replied. The seven clones got onboard the transport and waited for the Sergeant to give the all clear to the pilot.

Ken tapped the sergeant on the shoulder, "Can we divert to pick up some other clones? Can't be leaving without the rest of my squad."

The sergeant nodded and moved to the cockpit. He came back and opened a private channel with Ken, "Where are they? Might have to call another larty."

Ken kept the channel open and commed Verna. "Sarge, update on your position?"

He waited a few seconds.

"Can I get an update on your position, Sarge?"

No response.

"Sarge?"

Still no response. Ken leaned against the bulkhead and slid down it. Thoughts began to run through his head, mainly getting as much revenge against the kriffing Seps as he could. He commed all five of his squadmates not with him in the larty.

"Can I get an update on casualties?

He switched to squad biosigns with a few rapid blinks and his heart skipped maybe three or four beats. The four in the larty were the last of the squad left.

Ken switched back to the open comm with the sergeant and said, "Never mind that. It would be a waste of fuel."

The sergeant stared at him for what seemed like an eternity, then turned back to the cockpit. Haldo sat next to him and put his hand on Ken's shoulder. Ken barely seemed to notice, he was too numb about the fact the Verna was gone. _Come on, clone. Pull it together._

Ken nodded and looked at what was left of his squad. "We'll pull through this. We'll get reinforced and make it through the rest of this war without any more casualties."

All of the clones nodded, and readied their weapons for another plunge to the surface.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Aftermath of the Battle for Kelatra

Day 14 after Battle of Geonosis

Ken watched from the mess hall of the barracks planetside as the last of the Sep ships were destroyed. There was no mighty cheer as there would have been if Ken's words had proved true. He hated himself and the uncaring, unthinking mass of droids that called themselves the Separatist Army.

_Maybe if they had organics instead of tinnies, they'd realize what a huge mistake they'd made by betraying the one thing in this galaxy that makes sense._ Lodi had been there one moment, gone the next. He could barely stand the loss. Especially now that he knew there was nothing more for him to do to the droids who had killed him.

He had been promoted to Sergeant after Geonosis, after learning that Verna actually had been killed by anti air fire. That was one unbearable loss. Now he had to face two, maybe three, if they didn't find Lico in time. He had disappeared at the same time as Lodi, but they had found Lodi's body nearly a hundred meters away.

He sat with Bin at the squad's table, two tray of now room-temperature food sitting untouched in front of them both.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, Bin."

"It wasn't a lie. There is no way to guarantee things like that."

"I still said that there would be no more casualties. And I lied."

"So what? You had no way of knowing."

Ken stared at the food, wanting it gone so bad that when a trooper came up and asked if he was going to eat it, he just pushed it toward him and stared into his eyes.

Once the clone left, Ken went back to staring at the empty table, wishing that it was still there. Once he realized it, he started to smile. Then he slid Bin's tray over to his side and started eating.

"Eh—Hey! I was gonna eat that!"

"Life feels better on a full stomach." Kendal got up to leave and patted Bin on the shoulder, "You should try it." He walked away with a completely content look on his face.

"Rotten _di'kut_." Bin said it just loud enough for Ken to hear. His smile didn't leave his face until he was outside. He took a deep breath and marched steadily off toward his quarters, his face a mask and his mind a grey cloud with flashes of lightning.

Bin sat at the table for a while after Ken had left. Everybody needed some R&R. He wondered how the commandoes they had met at Geonosis had fared so far, a week into the war. He had heard reports that a lot of commandos bit the dust on that planet.

_Just like a lot of regular clone. _He sighed and looked down at his near empty tray of food.

"That _di'kut_ owes me. A lot." The hatch to the mess opened and he immediately recognized the two clones that walked in, as they did him.

"What have you to report, trooper?"

Both clones exchanged glances, then returned their gazes to Bin.

"No sign of Lico, yet, sir. We'll find him."

"Not now, you won't. It's Ghik and Forro's patrol. Go tell them it's their turn."

Both saluted, said, "Yessir!" and walked off. Bin wished that he could be the one to go out there and search. But he was needed here, to try and get the Sergeant to come to his senses.

Which he was going to do before they left this planet. He had to, or something might happen in the next battle.

He walked out of the mess hall and looked around the base, just to see if anything was off. He didn't see any immediate problems, so he started off toward their squad's quarters. On his way there, he began to feel something scratching, scraping at the back of his mind.

It made his head twitch to the side every time it started. Then he stopped. His eyes went wide, and he craned his head around in every direction, trying to see if there was someone there.

"Something wrong?"

Bin jumped and whirled around. Once he saw that it was Ken, he relaxed.

"No. Everything's fine. How about you?"

"I'm going out with Ghik and Forro. Might be the best way for me to come to terms with… Lodi."

"Roger that, sir. Hope you have some good luck." Ken nodded and walked off toward the gate where Ghik and Forro were waiting. As soon as he left, the scratching at the back of his mind returned. He dismissed it as battle fatigue and tried to get used to it, and after a while, he succeeded.

He went off to his quarters and fell asleep after a while.

Ken slowed the speeder down then let it hover. "Ghik, you stay with the speeder and go by air. Me and Forro will take the underbrush."

"Roger that, sir." He jumped off and sank up to his shins in muck. When Forro landed beside him, he said, "Eh, I don't remember this stuff."

Ken turned his head in disbelief, "Where exactly were you walking, clone?"

"Eheh, not very many landmarks here for me to use, are there?"

"Guess you're right." Ken started off through the brush, using his vibroblade to slice through the especially thick areas. After a while of thrashing around in the tangled plants, Ken spotted a flash of white. It was really more of a grey, since the plat had been soaking in the muck for a few days.

Ken sloshed towards it as fast as he could, and when he tried to pull it out of the slime, something was holding it down. He plunged his hands deeper into it and felt more plastisteel plates beneath.

"Help me get this one up out of the water." Forro slung his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed beneath what seemed like an armpit. Both of them strained as they pulled the clone up into a sitting position in the water.

"Get that helmet off him." Forro popped the seals on his neck and lifted the helmet off.

Lico coughed and sputtered as he tried to talk. Ken popped his helmet off and said, "I guess I can say that at least one good thing happened on this trip."

Lico couldn't stop coughing, but he was able to smile in between the sputtering.

"Let's get you outta here." They both pulled him up by his armpits and kept him up with their shoulders.

Ken pressed in on the comm on his helmet and said, "Ghik, we've found him. Rendezvous back at the drop off coordinates."

"Roger that, sir. You may want to keep a look out for anything wrong. Something popped up on my sensors, then disappeared near you're position."

"Alright, Ghik. We'll keep our eyes open." They made slow progress to the RV, occasionally needing to stop for Lico to sputter and cough out more water that had managed to stay in him.

"How long… 'til we see… Ghik?" Lico managed to get a few words in now that most of the water had left his respiratory system. "Only a couple minutes now. You can hold for that long, right?"

Ken's comm crackled and Ghik's voice came through, "Sarge… The speeder was hit. I'm half a klick away from the RV, and I think I can make it there."

"Alright. Do you know what hit you?"

"It could have been one of those rogue Jedi, like the Generals told us. It had a red light saber, instead of those green or blue ones." Ken's eyes widened. He looked at Lico and Forro. He couldn't see Forro's eyes, but Lico's were like saucer plates.

"Get out of there clone! Don't go to the rendezvous, come straight to us. We'll get to you as fast as we can."

Ken waited for a reply from Ghik, but there was nothing. "Let's get going."

"Roger that, sir. Moving."

Forro helped Lico up while Ken readied his vibroblade and carbine. "You two go to the RV and call for some heavy support. We just might have to burn this whole swamp to kill that rogue."

"Where are you going, Sarge?"

"I'm going to help Ghik."

"No… Not without me."

"Lico, I am not going to lose you twice on one planet."

"You'll find Ghik, and make it back, right?"

Ken nodded and patted Forro on the shoulder. "Don't worry about me. Now get to the RV and get me some help, damnit."

They hobbled off toward the RV and Ken ran as fast as he could through the jungle-like swamp. It took what seemed like an hour for him to finally reach Ghik. When he got there, Ghik was leaning against a gnarled tree.

"Ghik! What happened? Are you alright?"

"Yeah… She knicked me a little bit. I think I got her, too. But she definitely wasn't acting like she'd been hurt."

"Let me see it. Where is she now?"

Ghik lifted his right arm and shifted position, still depending heavily on the tree for support. He couldn't lift his arm too high, or he'd open the wound.

It was a very deep cut. "You're going to be alright. We'll get out of here. Alive."

Ken held a battle dressing up and daubed some bacta onto it. Then he placed it over the wound and it adhered to the undersuit of the armor. He smoothed it out then grabbed Ghik's left arm and wrapped it around his shoulder.

"We'll get to the RV. We'll get out of here. Don't worry."

Before they could hardly get more than a few meters, a red shaft of light seemingly slid out of the darkness.

Ken drew his carbine and fired several bolts, all of them deflected. The blade sliced through the barrel of the gun. He let go of Ghik and pulled his vibroblade out, hoping that the cortosis weave that he heard about so much wasn't just talk.

The light saber caught on his small blade, and quickly recoiled, only to strike in another spot. He wasn't as lucky as the first time in catching the crimson blade. His left leg burned with immense pain, just from a small cut on the side.

He couldn't even imagine the pain Ghik was coping with. But there was no time to wonder about such things. He let Ghik fall into the muck, hoping the battle dressing would keep the water away from the wound, and deflected another strike.

He decided to keep this one-sided fight somewhat even in the assault category, and struck out with his left fist, but quickly pulled it back to avoid getting it sliced off. He tried to deflect another strike, but it skimmed off the vibroblade and shaved most of the bottom of his forearm plate and elbow plate off.

He dove forward and attempted to stab into the woman's ribcage. The blade slid in, but didn't stay for long. The woman jumped away from him and all of a sudden, Ken felt his windpipe being constricted.

He nearly dropped his vibroblade as he scratched at the neck seals. His lungs began to close, forcing the air through his windpipe, or making the tiny air sacs explode. He felt a pain like no other, not even like the knick to his leg.

Then he heard a shot ring out. The bolt flew into the darkness, and collided with something. It could have been a tree, or the woman, but either way, the result was the same. Ken fell down into the water and was immediately sucked down to the bottom. Only one seal wasn't secured on his helmet, and it was letting quite a bit of the scummy water in.

He quickly groped through the water to try and close the seal, or to get out of the water. A hand grabbed his arm, and pulled him up and out of the water. He popped the other seals on his neck so he could let the rest of the water out. He decided to look at his savior while he was shaking the water out and stopped.

"General, sir. Thank you."

"No problem, Sergeant."

General Camyn was one of the few Jedi to have survived the Battle of Geonosis. He wasn't as much of a legend as Generals Skywalker and Kenobi, but he was a Jedi, and that was more than enough to make him something that all officers looked up to.

Ken twisted around and ran to where he had left Ghik. Luckily, he was still above the water. Ken grabbed him and pulled him up to his feet. He checked the dressing to make sure it held and sighed relief when he saw that it had.

Two clones came to help him into the gunship that that dropped them down. Ken turned to the General when they took Ghik, "Did you pick up Lico and Forro?"

"Yes. They believed it most urgent that we find you. With how you handled that Sith, you'll make Captain easily."

"I could never have handled it as good as you, sir."

Camyn smiled and nodded. "Lico and Ghik will be fine. And it seems as though we will have to stay here for a while longer, because of the Sith Lord."

Ken nodded and said, "I hope we catch her soon, because this planet is wearing down my tolerance of a good rain."

The General chuckled and walked toward the gunship. Ken followed after him hopping up onto the deck. He looked out across the upper canopy of the jungle and wondered what he had been actually feeling back there.

Astra Ve'las held her ribs where the vibroblade had been inserted. It was still bleeding quite a bit, and she didn't have any more field dressings.

"Blasted clones. Why couldn't we have chosen to use them instead of letting them fall into the hands of the Republic? It would have been better than having those useless droids."

She jumped from tree to tree on her way back to her current hideout, so she could grab what little was in it and move farther away from the Republic forces. If she couldn't even handle two clone troopers on her own, she shouldn't even be alive now.

Branches and twigs scraped and scratched her everywhere, but she couldn't feel the scratched on her right arm. She looked down at it and saw the large burn for the fifth time. That wounded clone had definitely saved his friend from a lot of death.

Especially since she had dropped her lightsaber, and had no time to look for it when that Jedi showed himself. And now she was definitely not going to stand a chance against any clone trooper. Once she felt a sense of familiarity, she slowed down her sprinting among the branches.

When she stopped, she jumped down into the muck and reached into it. She pulled a small rock out of the mud at the bottom. When she pulled it out of the water, a tiny platform popped up as well. She put her hand on it and a confirmation tone sounded.

A lot of water was displaced as a larger platform came up near the first one. Astra stepped up on top it and when its sensors detected her, a lift engaged and took her down below the mud. She stepped off, and the lift went back up to seal the facility again.

She immediately made her way to sickbay, hoping that the medical droid had yet to try and leave with the others. She breathed a sigh of relief when she nearly walked into him.

"Mistress? Is something wrong?"

"Yes. I need medical attention."

"Where are you hurt?"

"My arm, and here—" She pointed at the now oozing stab wound, "where I was stabbed."

The droid studied both wounds and after only a few seconds he said, "Let's get the bacta tank ready."

She nodded and grabbed a rebreather. She stripped while 3-1D prepped the bacta tank. "No matter how many times I see that, it always strikes me as beautiful."

Astra felt a spike of hatred at what he had said. If she was a powerful Sith, 1D would never have to see her nude.

1D caught on to her anger and increased the rate at which the tank was filled. Luckily, it took less than a minute. 1D attached a small harness to help keep her aloft in the healing liquid and pressed a button to lift her up and plunge her into the tank.

"Sedatives will be injected through the harness, so the healing process will go as fast as possible."

Astra nodded and felt a prick near her waist and soon felt drowsy. She closed her eyes and waited for the sedatives to finally let her truly drift. Once she was finally asleep, 3-1D stared at her.

The things he could do to her now, the things that she would never know about. It made him feel good, just thinking about being so sadistic. He was going to have fun today.

Bin had been awakened by the alarms. When he had finally put his armor on and stepped out of his quarters, General Camyn had already left with a squad of troopers on a rescue mission. Bin asked a few clones what was going on, and one had said, "A Sith ambushed a patrol out there. The General said they might need reinforcements later."

Bin had rallied the squad together so that when the call came, they'd be ready. It had been nearly thirty minutes since they had gone out, and Bin faintly heard the whine of the returning gunship's engines. Once the gunship sat down on the pad, Bin's squad rushed up to help anyone who might have been injured.

The General was the first one out of the gunship, following after him was a Sergeant. Bin immediately recognized him. "Ken! I knew you'd have been the one to stir up the hive!"

Ken looked in his direction and pulled off his helmet. It wasn't until Bin saw the small notes of pain on Ken's face when he actually spotted the blackened and missing plates on his forearm and leg. Then he saw two troopers carrying another between them. His armor was dulled from it's near perfect white to a mucky grey-brown.

And he still recognized him. "Lico."

"Bin? I'd of thought that you would be out there instead of Sarge."

"I thought you had just taken the opportunity to make us think you were dead and really hoped you _were_ dead."

Lico smiled and laughed. Then he coughed and hacked all the way to sickbay. Bin looked back to Ken and hugged him for about a second before Ken grunted in pain. Bin recoiled immediately and looked at him with a questioning face.

"I had my lungs crushed. Damn Sith _shabuir_."

"Then you'd best be following Lico there."

Ken snorted. "Yeah, I'll see you after the doc gives me his prognosis."

Bin winked and patted him on the shoulder, pushing him along in the direction of the medical tent. Then he turned to the squad and said, "That's it, folks. Get back to your duties."

The scratching once again returned to his mind. He grew sick of it and went back to his quarters to try and sleep it off. And because of that feeling, all his joy and mirth at seeing Ken and Lico evaporated. He wasn't going to like the rest of this war.

Ken lay on the bio bed while the medical droid assigned to his unit scanned his chest and, specifically, his lungs.

"Many of the air sacs could not handle the pressures that they experienced and, since the oxygen and carbon dioxide in them could not escape, they 'popped', if you will."

"Anything other than inhaling bacta that I can do?"

"Yes. You will have to take several regenerative supplements and wait for the alveoli to reform their walls. Until your lungs are back to peak efficiency, you may have to sit out from conquest for a few weeks."

Ken tried to take a deep breath, out of reflex of being disappointed, and felt sharp pain from his lungs.

"And try not to do that anymore."

Ken nodded and slowly breathed in and out for a while as the droid prepped the necessary medicines. Ken looked over at Lico, who was lying down on a bed similar to his, quietly sleeping the hours away.

He smiled as he stood up and grabbed his helmet. The droid handed him a small bottle of the capsules and said, "Take four of them every day, either after a meal or before going to sleep. And, no more fighting Sith Lords." The droid rapidly closed one eye shutter and opened it, the equivalent of a wink.

Ken's smile widened a bit as he walked over to Lico.

"How you doin', Sarge?" Lico said groggily.

"Good. And, I won't be your Sergeant for a while. Doctor's orders."

"But you're practically a legend already, and the war's barely even started. Taking on a Sith is one of those things that go well on a military record."

Ken couldn't help but smile. "I'm not the only one who should be the legend. Ghik was the one that saved me. He took a shot at her, and she dropped me. If he hadn't been there, my lungs wouldn't need healing."

"How is he?"

"He's being prepped for transport up to the medbay aboard one of the ships. Gonna get put in a bacta tank."

"Heh. Guess he deserves a good rest like that. Probably comfy, too."

Ken chuckled. "I'll let you get your rest. I gotta get mine, too." Ken walked away from the bed toward the door, and toward his quarters. As soon as he got outside, he took one capsule out of the bottle and popped it in his mouth.

It slid smoothly down his throat. Ken went to the squad's quarters and called everyone together.

"I have an announcement to make. Bin will be acting Sergeant for this squad while I am recuperating. All commanding officers will be notified, and you will report to him, not me, when you have a problem with this life of yours. Is that understood?"

A chorus of "Yes sirs!" followed.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to catch up on some sleep."

Once he was in his rack, he thought about the Sith Lord. He wondered where she may be right now. Wondered if she had actually survived her wounds, or if she had just run off to die somewhere else. He doubted someone as powerful as her would just die because some clone wanted her to.

And that was his final thought as he drifted off to sleep.


End file.
